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Sigil City of [Phalla] - Day Seven: Be Sure to Visit Scenic Carceri!

Welcome to Sigil: City of Doors. Sigil's a ring-shaped city that's squatting on top of an infinitely tall spire in what some claim to be in the center of the Planes... of course, *how* it could be at the top of an infinitely tall spire, and how the city could even *be* at the center of the Planes raises some questions. Sigil's called the 'City of Doors,' mostly because there's a LOT of invisible doors that lead in and out of it - just about any arch, door frame, barrel hoop, book shelf, or open window might be a portal under the right conditions. It all depends on if you have the key to open it.

See, I guess the best way to explain it is - most portals are 'sleeping,' right? You could walk through them, by them, on top of them, and nothing would happen. Now, every portal has something that 'wakes it up.' That could be a tune you hum to yourself, a loaf of week-old Bytopian bread, remembering what your first kiss was like, and then - BAM - the portal gets its juices flowing, and you can jump through it, to whatever's on the other side. You might get taken a few blocks away, a thousand miles, or even to another plane of existence.

Being able to connect to everywhere from anywhere makes Sigil a very strategic city to hold. All kinds of military forces have tried to make Sigil their base. Of course, both sides of the Blood War would love to control Sigil. Up until recently, the Lady of Pain has prevented any of them from coming close.

Sigil is watched over by the Lady of Pain, a mysterious figure who never speaks, but has immense power. She only gets involved in extreme cases, but if she does get involved someone is going to die or disappear. She keeps the city safe from other powers and the Blood War.

No one is exactly sure what happened the day things changed. There was a bright flash of light, and suddenly one part of Sigil was sealed away by an invisible barrier. No one could enter and no one could leave. While people wandered around in confusion, several gates to the lower planes opened, and all sorts of horrible monstrosities lumbered out and began slaughtering eachother.

If they were keeping the violence to themselves, no one would mind too much, but they have been killing everything in their path, destroying buildings, and generally wrecking up the place.

The citizens of Sigil are no match for these fiends one on one, but if they gather together surely they’ll be able to overwhelm any target. At least, that’s the hope...

The Blood War
In the Lower Planes rages the Blood War. There is not another plane that is not touched by this conflict. Think of the most hideous war imaginable, magnify it a billion times in time and scope, and you have a fraction of the battlefield for which the Lower Planes are fought. It is a war of ideology, to define one of the most basic concepts of multiverse! It is fought between the tanar’ri (demons) and the baatezu (devils). Although both are pure evil, they both have different ways of expressing themselves. They aren’t very tolerant of deviation.

The tanar’ri fight for chaos and evil… evil through brute force and sudden flurries of whim and hate. Their ‘evil’ is the evil of the horde, a mob mentality of whirling evil. They kill and plunder.

The baatezu wish only strictly regimented evil, promoting the cause of evil in a precise, orderly fashion. The tanar’ri murder. The baatezu exploit. The two are determined to exterminate the other and the rest of the multi-verse is inclined to let them.

Now this lovely confrontation is taking place in Sigil! This should not be possible. How this is happening is not clear. The average citizen of Sigil left this question for the philosophers and ran like hell. The philosophers were killed during debate.

What *is* clear is that two armies of evil beings from the lower planes are here to bring carnage to eachother, and everyone else they come across.

What’s all this now?

This is a main phalla for 60 players based in the Planescape setting. Signups will run until we hit 60, or until Thursday or so. General rules of Phalla can be found here. New players are welcome as are old of course.

Thank you Edcrab for looking this over for me.

And now for the usual rules.

Laws of Sigil:

You must vote each day. Vote in bold red for whoever you think is likely to be a threat to you. The winner of the vote will be eliminated every night. Missing a vote will result in a warning, followed by replacement.

Vote close will be at 3 PM EST Orders and votes submitted before 3PM will count for that day, orders submitted at 3:00PM or later will not count for that day.

All the standard rules are in effect including:

Do not directly quote anything from PMs with me, or take screenshots of them. It is okay to paraphrase role PMs however.

Do not post in different languages and do not post in code.

Do not anonymously contact anyone.

Please don't make passionate personal attacks.

When you die you may make one ghost post which cannot contain any game information whatsoever. After that please do not discuss the game with anyone still alive.

Responsibilities of Citizenship in Sigil:
Everyone should make at least two other posts each day. Inactive players will be replaced if possible.

Ask for clarifications or any questions in Bold Orange. You can always PM me with clarification requests, or post them directly in the thread. If you have questions about your role you should probably use the PM method to avoid giving away info to the other players. They are *already* suspicious of you.

Make sure you invite me to any proboards you might form.

There is no default villager role, so it will not be posted.

All roles have a listed life total. This can be reduced or increased by various abilities, having your life total drop to 0 causes elimination.
There are both physical and magical attacks present, magical attacks tend to be harder to avoid.

The Vote will come first in order.

Tie votes indicate that two people are equally guilty, and will kill both people involved. Be careful.

Signup in bold lime to move to Sigil. Housing is very affordable in the demonic battleground. *Very* affordable.

Amidst the chaos, a drab man stood in a narrow street speaking calmly to any who would listen. ” This life is but a shadow, and the days have finally come when we meet True Death. Cease your panic, you misery, and caring. Accept your death and finally break the cycle. Panicking will just force you through another round. Accept-”

“-When the Lady speaks!”
A gang of thugs suddenly appeared from an ally behind the man, shoving him to the floor as they up the street. The man picked himself up and dusted himself off only to feel a brief moment of panic as his body was penetrated by several swords. His last moments were unfortunately filled with panic, misery, and care.

A marilith withdrew several exotic swords from the dustie, and licked the blades clean one by one. As she worked, a silent horde of gelatinous flesh gathered itself up and swallowed her up, clawing and biting and suffering horrible losses. The flow did not let up, and the marilith did not reappear.

Throughout the city, similar events were occurring. Would anyone survive? One thing was for sure: many would be penned in the dead book before their time in the coming days.

***

The Dead:Phyphor - Dustmen Factor - True Death sought him.

***

Remember to invite me to any proboards you might form.
If you didn’t get a Role PM please let me know.

You may submit your orders by replying to your role PM. Please include the Day (Day 1 orders) or something similar in your PM.

There is no sun over Sigil, but there is a light that comes and goes to create a day and night cycle. As night was falling a crowd was assembling to combine their powers and single out someone for death. A strong wind began to blow through the city streets as a heavily cloaked and robed figure was brought before the group.

Suddenly, the figure threw his robe aside to reveal a tall scaled creature with fearsome claws and a thrashing tail. The creature grabbed the closest person next to him and attempted to drag him into range of his twisted, dangerous-looking beard. Before anyone was injured, the bearded devil was flung to the ground by guards.

Getting back up, corvidae scanned the crowd and met the gazes of several of his colleagues. Its eyes lit up with hope, than darkened with despair. None of them would stick their neck out. Dying would open up a vacuum in the rigid baatezu power structure that might help them advance. His thoughts were cut short as his head was neatly severed from his body by an executioner’s axe.

The crowd was excited at their success, but nervous of the coming darkness. After the execution everyone quickly dispersed. It was far too dangerous to stay so close together some said. Many people said they were going to take cover, others cited pressing business to attend to. The streets were briefly emptied, but people began to sneak out into the night soon after.

A small group of rats took to the streets after the bulk of the people had left. Although they appeared to be normal rats, an astute observer would notice that the rats had their brains exposed. The rats had some instinct that they were in danger, and turned hissing as several monstrous shapes appeared and struck out at them. Whatever it was that attacked them took care not to leave a single rat alive. The Wildcat rats were annihilated.

piL locked the door to his office and reflected on the day. He was so pleased with himself for thinking up the idea of banding together to defeat the invaders. Many had laughed at his theory of just voting them out one-by-one, but the proof was in the pudding as they say. As he settled down to read some paperwork, his door exploded into the room. Several hulking forms ducked to let themselves in, and started eviscerating piL as he stared in shock. Death came far too slow to him.

***

The Dead:corvidae - Barbazu - Executed by the people.Wildcat - A small group of cranium rats - Torn to shreds.piL - An advocate of Sigil - Eviscerated.

Everyone was talking about the new halo in the cage. Were the Devas really going to save the town? This one had exposed a formless blob of flesh for what it was. Hope began to make its way throughout the town. So it was an excited crowd that gathered to watch Greeper be executed.

The execution took several hours as the guards hacked and hacked. There was quite a difference of opinion on how to pen a formless blob of flesh.

As the crowd dispersed, some hard-heads held a rotund man for questioning. The man giggled evilly and started drumming his hands on his large belly.

“Sir, we’ve received word that you’ve been disturbing the peace.”

The man responded with a look of shock and surprise, which quickly gave way to rude gesture and a satisfied smile.

“Sir, you are going to have to come with us”

The man’s eye’s twinkled merrily as he made a complex gesture. The hard-heads opened their mouths to respond, but then suddenly realized that they had simultaneously lost bowel control. The man tittered, he was clearly *Quite * pleased with himself.

Unfortunately, humor is subjective, and an axe to the head
left JaysonFour quite dead.

***

After dark fell a second group of rats took to the streets. These rats also had exposed brains, but they seemed different somehow, more intelligent. Their eyes gleamed with an intelligence not normally found in lesser creatures. They were out for revenge. They saw their target and squeaked with fury. Then they saw another target and another until they realized they were surrounded.

A short time later, scores of small vermin sized blood stains coated the walls of the alley and the Peccavi group was no more.
“Nipped that one in the bud.”
“Could have been bad.”

***

People on the streets pointed as they noticed a loathsome flying shape. What looked like a giant man-sized beetle flew above them; its beady eyes visible even from a great distance staring out from beneath its enameled carapace. Three antennae waved wildly above its head, in what might be taken for a state of panic.

As the people recovered from the shock of the sight, they noticed that the creature was in bad shape. Five of its six limbs hung at odd, twisted angles, and its flight was ragged and drunken. An obscure dark shape intercepted it and with a shriek, Arivia fell from the sky and fixed the onlookers with what may have been a sympathetic, pleading look if it were coming from a less alien face.

After giving a final shudder, she was still.

***

A hedge wizard returned to his small home after attempting a bit of vigilante action. If only he could memorize more spells. While he’d never minded his level of power before, he sorely regretted not having more staying power now. Still, he was doing a better job than most of the people in this mess. He started studying his spells, re-memorizing his destructive spells. A sudden crash caused him to look up from his desk.
“You! NO!”

There was a loud screaming from Spoit’s house that night, but no one wanted to check on him. In the morning there wasn’t much left.

***

The Dead:Greeper - Lemure - Executed by the people.JaysonFour - Jumble Murdersense, Xaositect Factor - Some people just don’t get it.Peccavi - A small group of aware cranium rats - Splattered.Arivia - Kocrachon - Pummeled and beaten.Spoit - A hedge wizard - Torn to shreds.

A robed, hooded figure was led out into the square.
“Sir you stand accused of being evil”kime threw off his disguise revealing another tall, fearsome bearded devil.

He snarled and said, “That’s quite the mental leap there. But that’s not what should concern you. You see we are the good guys. When the Tanar’ri take over this city in a few days, you’ll wish we were here to defend you. You puny things can’t stand up to them. I understand you are concerned about our attempt to take over here. I’m sure we can reach an agreement. Shall I draw up a contract?”

kime’s severed head flying across the square was answer enough.

***

Belief had power on the outer planes, I’ve seen belief move cities, make men stave off death, and turn an evil hag's heart half-circle.

***

A hulking shape was crouching over its victim when it heard a noise. An axe sliding out of a holster. A fearsome Bulezau reared up and snarled at the interruption. Just a puny mortal. Just another victim. A smug smile spread across its loathsome features.

KetBra was quite happy as he returned from his appointment that evening. He had stretched his skills, and learned that he could do more than he thought. As he walked past a dark alley, several shapes separated from the darkness and followed him. His body froze when his arm was torn off.

His mind began racing. This is not a career-ending injury, but we need to get out of her and cast our new spells. GO!!! His body seemed to be paying more attention to its missing part, and shortly thereafter it had another part to look at, and another. His mind sighed and wondered how it got saddled with such a terrible body.

***

A dabus floated sullenly, wracked with a horrible wasting disease.

A priest approached the dabus, glance over and said,”Eh, I don’t want to touch that, I might get infected.”

A second priest came by looked at the dabus and said, “I am going to cure that, I really am. But first let me go take care of someone else. You aren’t going to die right now or anything.”

Infidel died, right then. In the morning the people gathered around the dead dabus and tried to lay the blame on everyone else. It would not due to have anyone think they murdered a dabus when the Lady came back. She was coming back wasn't she?

Day Four
People gathered somberly to watch the Deva be led out into the square. No one had ever seen a Deva quite like this before. Although it was clear he was a great warrior, his wings had been charred and were skeletal and spider-like. He was under heavy guard, and clearly had much remaining power. He stood there in the square meeting the gaze of all assembled there.

“You are making a place for yourself in the lower planes forever by killing me. I hope you enjoy this minor skirmish going on in the city, because with my blood on your hands, you’ll be permanent parts of the Blood War.”

The executioners paused, unsure about killing a higher being.

Finally, they dispatched SeGaTai the Fallen Deva. Everyone felt a moment of horror, which was increased when maniacal laughter broke out. No one could tell where it had come from, but someone was clearly very happy...

***

A formless mass of flesh bounced towards its target when it was struck by a flaming projectile. It ran off screaming, barely managing to extinguish itself. Finally it reached its target and began to bite and chew...

***

Alegis was tired after another long shift of guard duty, and was ready to finally relax. Somehow he had found a bar that was still open in the madness, and settled down to eat some of the sooty za that he loved so much. As he was eating he noticed most of the patrons of the bar sidle out. He looked up to see that several monstrous shapes had him surrounded...

One of the creatures picked up the za and took a bite thinking that it tasted almost as good as Alegis.

***

What appeared to be an incredibly fat three foot tall man trundled through the streets of Sigil, bits of gore smeared over his face. It seemed happy enough, if barely sentient. The creature picked up speed an emitted that wordless scream again as it saw a figure standing in its way. When it saw opponents encircle it though it paused and sat down.

A hint of a smile was on its face as jdarksun was torn apart. His body exploded filling the area with noxious gasses.

***

The hedge wizard cast his spell watching as his a globe of acid splashed on its distant target. Loud sizzling and shrieks of agony gave him a feeling of satisfaction. He shook his head smiling, gotta be careful with that acid he thought. His target had a great deal of endurance, but he felt certain that he would soon be able to destroy it.

“YOU! TAKING PLEASURE IN THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF OTHERS?”

“What?” Redasaur asked, and turned around.

Before he could even face the other, he was obliterated by a massive blow.

***

The singed mass of formless flesh was on its way to rejoin its peers when it again started on fire. It was hard to say whether jackisreal was screaming in agony or sighing at his luck.

Thank you the late Infidel and his successors in the good network.
I should be leave victorious with profit somewhat soonish if I've done my math right.

I'm also amazed more mafia didn't try to buy from me as they were being voted out... that life was going to 0 anyways. Why waste it?
Though I never did sell out a client. The only time I was going to, they got burninated.
But they stopped buying stuff and I knew they were mafia and got annoyed at them no longer buying stuff.

There’s this pillar on Avernus, the first layer of Baator, built of the heads of all those who've led others to their deaths through lies. The pillar itself is an autonomous entity and its knowledge grows as beings are absorbed into it. The pillar towers miles into the sky of Avernus and up close the skulls seem to act individually, some laughing manically, others weeping and screaming, skulls surface and sink in the pillar and the endless chorus of chattering skulls can be heard for many miles around. It is said that the skulls of the truly wicked, cowardly, and the greatest liars and betrayers are the only non-demon occupants of the pillar.

So *much* blood!
The pillar of skulls had not feasted so well in quite some time. It had taken a lot of its power to arrange a portal in the sealed off area of Sigil, but it had been worth it.
The Pillar had increased its standing significantly. And just for telling the foolish mortals who they were. If only it were always this easy.
The skulls laughed malevolently, and closed the portal.

vagrant_winds - The Pillar of Skulls has met his victory condition and exited the game in victory!